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About Us"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today."
Chinese proverb The Open Orchard Project connects communities through fruit and the planting of fruit trees in public places. These trees provide free fruit to local residents and greenery to our urban environments. |
Who We AreCurrent ProjectsOur History |
Co-Chair: Torla Evans and Kim Thornton
Secretary: Thomas Denhof Treasurer: Kat Lochmann Comms Officer: Saoirse Clohessy Members: We have more than 100 people on our email list As well as ongoing maintenance of existing orchards, we have become involved in urban greening projects.
Our gravel garden at the Bzz Garage site on Rothschild Street is a project in response to the record-breaking heatwave in 2022, where we found watering was becoming unsustainable. We are also approaching more businesses in the industrial area around Norwood Bus Garage offering to revaluate their green spaces to see how they could be optimised for biodiversity. In February of 2024 we took on the maintenance of the depaved beds along Norwood Road and the planters around the Norwood Works industrial estate. The Open Orchard Project started in 2014 in West Norwood, with the help of The Openworks. A group of local citizens came together to plant 67 fruit trees in 9 public locations in and around West Norwood and Streatham Hill in south London.
All the mini-orchards were public land where local residents who took part in the tree planting and their on-going care. In October 2015 we became a constituted group with the aim of planting more public fruit trees. In June 2019 we changed our constitution in order to be able to plant non-fruit trees in addition to what we've always done so we can help with other planting schemes likewise. We rely on donations, grant funding as well as some renumeration for garden maintenance work. |
